I am a “reformed” clinical psychologist and Somatic ExperiencingⓇ Practitioner with over 20 years of experience as a therapist, program manager, educator and clinical supervisor and an abiding passion for supporting personal, communal and ecosystem flourishing. I am blessed to reside in the redwood mountain territories of the Amah Matsun, Awaswas & Muwekma tribes, presently known as Felton, California. Beyond California, I also practice in Texas (having previously lived in Austin for 30 years).

Positionality & Personal Details

I’m a 55-year-old white neurospicy (low support needs autistic with a “heavy sprinkle” of ADHD) transgender woman. I am divorced and have two adult children. In my free time I most enjoy reading, cooking, cuddling & playing with my cat Indie, and spending time in nature (especially hiking and rock climbing).

Current Work & Passion

I have centered my 20+ year practice around healing and recovery from a broad array of chronic and complex toxic and/or traumatic influences… largely starting with those arising from the impacts of the rigid gender binary… to abuse and neglect arising during childhood from within and outside of one’s family… to the impacts of war and addictions. Moving to private practice has allowed me to focus almost exclusively on my passion for serving the emotional, mental and relational health needs of the trans, non-binary, two spirit, gender-expansive and broader queer community. I am deeply invested in the collective liberation and healing of queer folx from the impacts of cis and heteronormative cultural forces that have and continue to pressure us to conform to ideologies, value systems and ways of moving through the world that are incongruent and at odds with the realities of our bodies and authentic selves. This commitment to serving trans and non-binary individuals, their significant others/family, and the broader queer community extends beyond work and includes…

• Volunteering…Most recently this has included starting and facilitating a support group for trans women and trans feminine folks at the Diversity Center in Santa Cruz.

• Educating and training… college students to fellow professionals regarding trans and non-binary identities, challenges and mental healthcare needs.

In addition, having recognized that I’m AuDHD within the last couple years, I am greatly enjoying learning more about and intentionally working with other members of the neurodivergent community.

Training & Professional Background

After graduating in 2002 from the Clinical Psychology program in the University of Texas at Austin (and a brief stint in private practice) I began what would become a 19 year-long career as the primary psychologist and team lead for the substance use disorder program at the Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System.  Over the years I was the primary driver behind transforming it into an integrated harm-reduction program for addressing combined substance use problems and co-occurring mental health conditions and relationship problems.  In particular, I developed a specialized somatically-oriented program for addressing the combined impacts of complex PTSD and substance use.  Since transitioning into private practice in January of 2023 my practice has been almost exclusively focused on trans, non-binary and gender expansive folx and secondarily other members of the queer community.  

Beyond my clinical and administrative work, I have been educating, training and supervising graduate students, interns, post-docs and fellow professionals for approximately 20 years on topics as broad as… 

• Addictions and integrated treatment of co-occuring mental health problems

• Attachment theory and psychotherapy

• Complex PTSD and dissociation

• Gender identity & mental health

• Military culture and it’s impacts on mental health, treatment and recovery

• Mindfulness integration within psychotherapy

• Nutrition and mental health

• Somatic Experiencing and Polyvagal Theory in psychotherapy

Influences & foundations of my work

My practice, which I named “Natures Mosaic Psychotherapy,” reflects an integration/blending of several systemic and ecologically-informed approaches...

• Somatic Experiencing for it’s nuanced understanding of the survival-based (autonomic) nervous system and how to harness the wisdom and ride the alchemical energies of our bodies in order to renegotiate traumatic experiences and find wholeness…

• Attachment-informed psychodynamic perspectives and their emphasis on the critical role of early caregiver relationships on our development, attunement and attending to our emotional experience, and experience of safety in relationships and within ourselves. This therapeutic tradition centers relational safety as an essential precursor for the courage to heal past wounds and explore new territory…

• Parts-work approaches for their capacity to help us more deeply understand and respect the gifts and burdens of the many different facets of our complex inner ecology and support movement towards greater inner harmonious coexistence…

• Buddhist psychological and secular mindfulness traditions for their emphasis on understanding the nature of suffering, helping a wayward mind return to present-moment experience, and aiding our discernment of truth from harmful intrusions of the past and projections onto the future… and

• Nature-based therapeutic principles, practices and ceremonies which can help us step outside of conventional western pathologizing perspectives; thereby more creatively, directly and deeply accessing the capacity and elements that promote healing.

To learn more

Go to my website at www.naturesmosaictherapy.com.